Russian higher education at a crossroads: one step forward, two steps back

Abstract

The article presents the results of research conducted by the staff of the Research Institute “New Economy and Business” of Plekhanov Russian University of Economics concerning the role of the Russian educational system in the space of the life of society, where it occupies an extensive sphere of intertwining direct and indirect interests, processes, actions of various parties: from an individual to the entire population of the country; from individual enterprises, organizations, to the entire production; from the employee to the sphere of labor, the entire socio-economic complex of the country. The system of higher education in the format of the Bologna system has been so deeply transplanted by many years of efforts into the entire vast sphere of Russian education, integrated with the spheres of science and labor. society as a whole, that it is difficult even to imagine not only an integral, but even a fragmentary one-time abolition of it. Based on almost 50 years of experience in serving Russian education in the teaching, scientific, and administrative fields, the authors of the article express their opinion regarding the demands seriously expressed in the Russian scientific and pedagogical community for the immediate abolition of the current system of Russian higher education (meaning the Bologna type) and the transition to a new, bearing the features of national tradition. The article notes that currently, the mechanism of simultaneous cancellation and transfer of the system is not yet completely clear. In the final section of the article, conclusions are drawn concerning some aspects of the fate of the Bologna system in the Russian Federation, other innovations of recent years, including the Western model in higher education, based on the experience of previous higher school reforms.